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San Antonio’s CellRight Sells to U.K. Medical Company Tissue Regenix

San Antonio — CellRight Technologies, a maker of bone and tissue grafts derived from cadavers, has been purchased by a British company that also uses a process of removing DNA and cells from human and animal tissue so the products can be used in healthcare.

CellRight was sold for as much as to U.K.-based regenerative medicine company Tissue Regenix, which is traded on the London Stock Exchange. Tissue Regenix raised about $52 million (40 million pounds) for the acquisition and said in a public filing in July that it planned to use as much as $30 million to buy CellRight. The two companies had been discussing a deal for months and announced the transaction was completed this morning. CellRight CEO Jesus Hernandez hasn’t responded to a request to confirm the final sale price

Tissue Regenix says five-year-old CellRight will help the British company enter the U.S. orthopedics market in early 2018. It plans to focus initially on ligament reconstruction, specifically a device called OrthoPure HT for repairing anterior cruciate ligaments. A tissue bank that CellRight has been amassing will help the buyer bring that product and others to market over the next two years, Tissue Regenix wrote in a news release.

CellRight has multiple human-derived products, including skin grafts and bone scaffolds. The company puts its products through a decellularization process that removes DNA and cells to prevent the body from rejecting the new tissue, Hernandez told Xconomy last year.

Last year, when surgeons successfully separated conjoined twins in southern Texas, some of CellRight’s Matrix IQ Dermis product was used on the twins to help repair their (now separate) abdominal walls.

Hernandez and other employees are joining Tissue Regenix, according to the news release.

Tissue Regenix sells soft tissue products for wound care, orthopedics, and cardiac applications. The company was founded in 2006 and spun out of the University of Leeds in the U.K. The company first opened a U.S. operation in 2012 focused on wound care. This acquisition gives Tissue Regenix a U.S. facility to manufacture products using its decellularization process, dCell, on which Tissue Regenix says it holds a patent.

David Holley is Xconomy's national correspondent based in Austin, TX. You can reach him at dholley@xconomy.com Follow @xconholley